As of January 1st 2012 Ulrika Grefberg and Emil Virhammar are partners at Svalner. Ulrika
has worked at Svalner since 2009 and Emil since 2006. Before joining Svalner
both have work at the Swedish Tax Agency and as tax lawyers at audit firms.

On 14 November 2011 the Swedish Government announced that the legislation restricting interest deductions will be extended due to the continuance of what the Government considers as aggressive tax planning with interest deductions, especially in private equity owned Swedish tax funded welfare companies such as in the health and care sectors.

In Sweden there are currently provisions limiting the right of deducting interest payments made between affiliated companies related to inter-company transfers of business shares. The current rules are not applicable on interest payments deriving from external acquisitions.

The new legislation is expected to be presented in spring 2012 in order to become effective as of 1 January 2013. The new legislation will not be limited to welfare companies. No details regarding the new legislation have as yet been disclosed but it is likely that the new rules will cover interest payments deriving from external acquisitions.

Further, the Swedish Government announced that it will assign the Swedish Tax Agency to scrutinize structures involving tax planning with interest deductions in the welfare sector, as well as investigate the possibilities to apply the current legislation by invoking the Swedish tax avoidance act.

The extended legislation is meant to be temporary awaiting a more general proposal from the Corporate tax committee which is expected to present a proposal for entirely revised legislation in this area in November 2013.

It should be noted that this is currently a very hot political issue in Sweden and therefore it cannot be ruled out that revised legislation may be introduced prior to 1 January 2013.

Contact

Dr. Lars Samuelson, Director                                          Harald Steinbrecher, Director

Phone:   +46-8-528 01 250/ (direct 293)                     Phone:   +46-8-528 01 250/ (direct 297)

Mobile:   +46-70-146 60 35                                             Mobile:   +46-70-402 62 58

E-Mail:    lars.samuelson@svalner.se                            E-Mail:    harald.steinbrecher@svalner.se

Tomas holds LLM degrees from the University of Stockholm and the London School of Economics.

Svalner listed as one of the world’s leading tax advisors

Out of sixteen leading tax advisors in Sweden, two of them are found at Svalner Skatt & Transaktion according to the newly published Guide to the World’s Leading Tax Advisors.

- We were of course very pleased when we got the news, but not that surprised given how many talented and high profile co workers we have, says Mattias Fri, who is on the list together with Jan Kleerup.

The candidates to the list are selected by the industry and its clients. The list is then put together by Legal Media Group. Legal Media Group has during 16 years published Expert Guides that have become one of the most reliable sources for international buyers of legal services and tax advice services.

- This kind of research is maybe not entirely conventional, but it definitely shows us that our clients and industry colleagues perceive us as a high quality advisor even though we relatively speaking are a young firm. Our competitors were founded maybe 50 years ago and are represented throughout the world. But even though we haven’t been in business more than six years and so far “only” operate in Sweden, we are already one of the country’s leading tax firms. We are obviously very proud of that, says Mattias Fri.

Some of Svalner’s clients noticed the award and one of them says like this:

”Svalner is a world class VAT advisor. They have a broad competence that covers several important industries and they have a great understanding of what implications their tax advice has on the rest of the business. The advice is therefore easier to execute which is important to make sure the end product will add value and not only exist as a solution in a document.”

Other Swedish tax advisors on the list are Bird & Bird, Deloitte, KPMG, Mannheimer Swartling, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Skeppsbron Skatt and Vinge.

For further information, please visit www.expertguides.com.
If you have questions regarding the research or about Svalner in general, please contact:
Mattias Fri, Svalner Skatt & Transaktion, 0046 8 528 01 250.

On January 17^th Harald Steinbrecher joined Svalner Skatt & Transaktion in Stockholm. He is a tax lawyer and specialized in company taxation. Before joining Svalner Harald worked at Ashurst Advokatbyrå.

On 10 January Ann-Sofie Koschland joined Svalner Skatt & Transaktion in Stockholm as receptionist.

On 1 November 2010 Cina Lindskog joined Svalner Skatt & Transaktion as a consultant. He graduated from Uppsala University in spring 2010.